Newspaper websites seem to be the preferred source of local news for consumers, according to the Newspaper Association of America and comScore (SCOR). Fifty-seven percent of respondents are drawn to local newspaper websites. But take this with a grain of salt: 54% chose online portals and 53% selected local television websites. In terms of what consumers consider the most trusted local news source to be, newspapers have the lead, but the gap is narrowing. Now, only 33% choose the newspaper for this reason, with local television sites pulling in 32%.
“While newspaper Web sites often face dozens of competitors touting their own local offerings in any given market, they have been able to thrive by leveraging trusted brands and strong local content to appeal to consumers and advertisers alike,” John Sturm, president and CEO of the NAA, said in a statement.
Newspaper companies with properties in the community space include Gannett (GCI), News Corp (NWS) and The New York Times Company (NYT).
What’s most interesting about the comScore results, however, is how classified advertising was treated. It’s been some time since I worked in the community newspaper business, but at the time (five years ago), 50% of their revenue came from classified ads, a share that has likely eroded since then. Rather than address the problem head on, the industry still chooses to define the categories carefully. According to the survey, newspaper websites “bested other sources for local classified ads,” with 39% of respondents turning to newspaper websites for this reason. Specialty websites came in at only 14%.
The metric is actually less meaningful than it may appear, because it’s only comparing local newspapers to other local classified ad sources, sparing it the competitive pressures of eBay (EBAY) and Craigslist, not to mention job sites such as Monster (MWW), CareerBuilder and HotJobs from Yahoo (YHOO). It also pushes major online media outlets like Aol (AOL), Google (GOOG) and MSN (MSFT) out of the equation.
Basically, newspapers are doing great if only compared to outlets that are less successful.
I’ve run into this tendency before in the local newspaper business. Traditionally, local newspapers have pushed the notion that they have monopolies in their markets, as small markets tend to have only one newspaper and the other media presences are apparently irrelevant. This sort of competitive slicing is what has taken the local news industry from successful and high-margin to a state in which it is under direct attack and with few alternatives.
February 26, 2010
source: washingtonpost.com